alexandra was out in surin recently and, of course, brought back a bag full of great old khmer tapes from the city! while my natural inclination would have been to save this one, really why not just start with the best of the lot? namphueng mueangsurin is at the head of surin's kantruem traditionalist revival movement, electing to minimize the thai & international influences in her music as compared to the genre's more popular, modern practitioners. while this is certainly a bold move, namphueng has won a devoted audience for it, and her recordings will almost invariably be found wherever kantruem music is sold. the music on this cassette is simply beautiful, a carefully-paced interplay between drum & fiddle supporting namphueng's soulful voice. it's a real treasure... enjoy!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

this week's post comes courtesy of mr. peter, who numbers among the most prolific concert-goers in thailand (probably #1, among foreigners). he & his wife make it to over 100 luk thung shows a year, and as you might imagine, know quite a bit about the music.

our star today is dueanphen amnuaiphon, and despite her currently touring live act (and despite the fact that i've shared a song of her's here before!) i actually know less than i should about her. what i can tell you for sure is that she is a prime practitioner of the thongchan sound! along with sathit thongchan, a. pochana & others, she's a representative of achan khamkoeng thongchan's "thongchan promotions" collective based out of roi et in the 80's & 90's. the thongchan sound is uptempo & danceable molam marked by fairly dense, electronic tracks highlighting the sax & keyboards... just try to not have a good time listening to this one. thanks, mr. peter!!

it's thet mahachat season in thailand, and so today i'd like to share this epic boxed-set, featuring a northeastern take on the sermons. thet mahachat (or "the great birth sermon") is the reading of the vessantara jataka (phra wetsandon chadok in thai), the final and most popular of the tales concerning the buddha's past incarnations. celebrated throughout southeast asia, the story features prince vessantara & his journeys, wherein he exemplifies the virtues of charity & selflessness. our monks here orate using thet lae, the unmistakably isan style of sing-sermonizing. after a brief instrumental flourish, they launch forth with the final 3 of the jataka's 13 chapters (chapter 10 "the words of indra", chapter 12 "the six kshatriya" & chapter 13 "the return to the city" [i assume it also features chapter 11 "the great king", but i don't know the text well enough to identify it]). these are old tapes and have a good bit of mechanical noise, but if you can get through it, you'll find a great document of a unique & compelling tradition. it's a 3 hour set, so i've kept with the original tape divisions and put it up in 3 parts.. make sure you get all three, and enjoy!

enchanting songs of thailand

a collection of great music made by the people of thailand; luk thung, luk krung, molam, regional folk styles & more. mostly recorded from tape, sound quality should be pretty good (unless stated otherwise). transliteration is done using the royal thai general system of transcription. feedback/re-upload requests/etc. always appreciated!